Bridgewater State University - Alpha Yearbook (Bridgewater, MA)

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' f l ne fouith acres of land and a ln 1860, my home consisted o one ant o i- ' L 7 , single two storywooden building, forty-two by sixtyfouryfeet, with a meagre l l as about twelve thousand dollars. At the equipment, whose tota va ue W f present time it consists of sixteen and three-fourths acres of land and seven buildings which have ,cost one-half million dollars. The main school 7 building- in its interior arrangement, heating, lighting, ventilating, heatf regulating, electric ime se- , , School buildings in the country. Its collections and apparatus are the pro- t' ivice and equipment is one of the best Normal duct of forty years of continucuseffort. lVe have a first class modern gymna- sium. The residence halls provide a happy, social, home life conducive to the best preparation for teaching, and the out-door conditions are most favor- able to health and strength. ' , I have been a school for co-education from the beginning, combining the strength, beauty and goodness of both sexes. , I have received 5269 pupils, 1330 men, 3939 women. And have graduated 34285 8'84Lmen, 2544 women. 65 per cent. of all in' attendance have been graduated. Careful returns show that 95 per cent. of my pupils have engaged in teaching, and the total of their work aggregates 30,000 years of teaching. I A - My graduates have gone forth into all the lines of educational work from the rural school to the Secretaryship -of the State Board of Education. They are today teaching in all the grades of public schools. Xearly sixty of them are at the present time Masters or Sub-masters in the grammar schools of Boston Fourteen have become principals in Normal Schools. Thirteen are at' this time public school superintendents of this State. Others have passed from teaching into the professions of law, medicine and theology, and many others aremaking homes which are centresof power and iniluence for good in the life of this and other States. A T .My life thus far has been, and 1 trust it will always continue to be, an ever widening stream of influence for good in this good old Commonwealth of Massachusetts. My graduates have wrought on every continent and i11 the islands of the sea. My founders builded better than they knew. 20

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'x whole soul. ,His whole mind and strength were given to his teaching. He threw into his life the poetry of pure and holy motive. By his fidelity, his enthusiasm, and the inspiration ,of his life he constantly drew his pupils to higher fields of thought and life. Declining health made it necessary for Mr. Conant to resign his office, and Albert G. Boyden, the present principal, was appointed to conduct my life. He is a native of South IValpole, Mass., was trained to a good physique and the habit of work on the farm and in the blacksmith shop of his father. He has striven since he was fourteen years of age to qualify himself to be a true teacher. This has been the ambition of his life. He was a graduate of this school under Mr. Tillinghast, was three years an assistant teacher with him, one term an assistant with Mr, Conant, then three years principal of the .English High School of, Salem, Mass., one year Sub-master of the Chap- man Grammar School, Boston, and then three years first assistant with Mr. Conant. In his service as assistant in this school and in his four years' teaching elsewhere he had taught nearly all the branches of study in the Nor- mal School course, which fitted him to take hold intelligently of the conduct of my life. He was thirty-three years of age when he entered upon his prin- cipalship and has directed my life in harmony with the spirit and principles of my father. I The number of different assistant instructors who have taken part in the unfolding of my life is eighty-ive, eleven of whom served under the first principal, thirteen of them served under the second, and sixty-eight have served under the third. Twenty-four of the latter have served in the Model School. Seven of these assistants have become principals of Normal Schools. Eliza B. Woodward, the first permanent lady assistant, served from 1857 to 1887. My course of study is the outcome of the study, observation, and experis ence of all my instructors from the beginning of my life to the present time. It has grown like a great tree spreading its roots and branches wider each. year. In 1846 it extended through three consecutive terms of fourteen weeks each, in 1855 it was made three consecutive terms of twenty weeks each, in 1865, four consecutive terms of twenty weeks each, in 1869 the four years' course was established. I now offer the regular course of four years and live other courses,-the Elementary, Intermediate, Kindergarten, Post-graduate, and Special course for experienced teachers. I The last thirteen years we have had the Central Village School in our building as a school of observation and practice for the Normal students. The average attendance per term for the first ten years of my life was fifty-three, for the last four years it has been two hundred andsixty-five. I9

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be Mew Secretary of the State' 1IBoarb of Ebucation . UR 'SCHOOL has been 'highly honored by the appointnient of one of its alunini, George H. Martin of Lynn, to the oiiice of Secretary of the State Board of Education. 'His nanre is enolled with those of Horace Mann, Bai-nas Sears, George S. lioutwell, I Joseph XVhite, John NV. Dickinson, and ' Frank A. Hill, who have successively held this honorable office since the appointment of the Board in the year 1837. Mr. Martin was instructor in this School for eighteen years, then an agent of the State Board of Education for ten years, and for the last twelve years he has been one of the supervisors of the public schools of Boston. ,His character, ability, and varied experience give hini peculiar iitness for the important position he now holds. An interesting article from his pen upon the Tuskegee Normal School will be found upon another page of the Offering. ' i be St. louis Exhibit URING the 111onth of March the exhibit assigned to the school by the Connnissioner of Education was arranged and shipped. lt consisted of two parts, the Norinal department being represented by an outlined description of the four years' course, and the - ' Model School by illustrative material indicating the course in Nature Study. The four years? course was outlined on thirty-two large printed sheets ZI